Pee-wee Herman moves his playhouse to prime...

Pee-wee Herman moves his playhouse to prime time Dec. 21 for “Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special,” a one-hour broadcast on CBS. This edition of the show, which normally airs Saturday mornings, will feature an eclectic string of appearances by performers as varied as Oprah Winfrey, Annette Funicello, Grace Jones, Joan Rivers and Zsa Zsa Gabor.

Meredith Baxter Birney is making another TV movie for NBC, playing a cat burglar this time. She is on the right side of the law, however, as a government agent puts her to work on a case requiring her special skills. Robert Urich of “Spenser: For Hire” plays the agent and Erik Estrada of “CHiPs” is on hand as Birney’s former partner.

Ed Ames, who used to play Daniel Boone’s sidekick, is cast as a sheriff in the Dec. 20 episode of “In the Heat of the Night” on NBC. The story hinges on suspicions that Ames’ character, a friend of the lawman played by Carroll O’Connor, may be brutalizing jail prisoners.

Suzanne Pleshette has joined the cast of “Nightingales,” a mid-season series for NBC that focuses on a group of student nurses. She’ll play the nurses’ director.

Daphne Maxwell Reid, who starred last season as the mortician on “Frank’s Place,” will play the headmistress at a private girls’ school in “Lost Honor,” an “ABC Afterschool Special” that will air later this season. It’s about what happens to four students who break the school’s honor code by stealing answers to an exam.

“The Kennedys of Massachusetts,” a six-hour miniseries about the famous family, has been postponed until next season, ABC reports. The project originally was ordered for the current season but the network now says that because the season got started late, it has a full inventory of programming. Annette O’Toole plays Rose Kennedy and William Petersen portrays Joseph Kennedy Sr.